James's Journal

I meant to write about Phantom of the Opera, so I will.. And, for bonus redundancy, I'm doing so without re-reading my previous post about it, so there's a good chance that I'll manage to repeat myself a little. Oh well..

I mean okay, the theatre was built for people with much smaller legs than mine, but the atmosphere was still spot on, I felt. That's largely down to the fact that the whole thing was built for the theatre, much in contrast to something like The Lion King, where it's an adaptation that requires more than a little imagination to accept.

So you have the chandelier, and the dual use of the stage as both a performance space and the actual stage from the productions within the musical itself, and that works really well. There's no fourth wall, because periodically people will address the audience because we're meant to be the audience inside the musical itself too, and that creates quite a special atmosphere. Disasters on stage, the chandelier falling, it all contributes to a greater sense of being there than you might expect from another musical.

As far as things like plot go, it's hard to really evaluate that, since I've known the plot for some time.. It's difficult to break out of the sense of reviewing a performance rather than reviewing the show itself. Still, I do very much enjoy the story, even if I find myself having far more sympathy for the Phantom than I do for Raoul (which doesn't really work out for me in the long run).

With a bit of hindsight (rose tinted glasses?), I don't have any issues with the cast. Going back and listening to the original cast recording, I can find so many places where Sarah Brightman's voice really annoyed me, and for the most part, all of those were improved by having a slightly more pop-singer Christine than opera-singer. I know, it's supposed to be operatic, but sometimes the shrill warbling just gets too much, and it's quite nice to listen to somebody who is singing nicely. I suspect Naomi disagrees regarding whether or not the performance actually was "nice", but that's an entirely separate matter :o)

The rest of the cast was reasonable.. I do love Firmin and André, if only for the song Notes, which is the most fun (if not strictly the best) song in the whole musical.. No complaints of any serious nature about Raoul or the Phantom, I can see ways in which they could have been better, but that in itself does not amount to a valid criticism.

Overall, I have to say that the whole thing was just an experience.. The set design was brilliant, and the integration between the show and the audience just added to the overall feeling of immersion. Definitely something I would recommend to others :o)

i'm not crazy about andrew lloyd webber shows, to be honest but the production istelf of this show either has to be fantastic or just don't bother because its so huge. I certainly agree about Sarah Brightmans voice though.